POLICE patrols are being taken off the road transferring prisoners because holding cells in the city, Sturt and Holden Hill stations have been turned into temporary jails as the state’s prison beds crisis escalates to unprecedented levels.

Frontline police have revealed they have been forced to transfer charged offenders refused police bail to other stations, such as Port Adelaide or Elizabeth, where they are held before court.

Such transfers are commonly taking up to 90 minutes each, resulting in patrol shortages unless they are backfilled by officers assigned to other roles, such as tactical teams targeting recidivist offenders.

The crisis has sparked discussions between senior police and the Police Association, which has received complaints from rank-and-file officers about the situation.

The Police Association says officers clearly are unable to assist the public if they are transferring prisoners between stations.

Correctional Services deputy chief executive Greg Weir on Wednesday confirmed there was a “surge in capacity’’ that requires using the police holding cells at three locations simultaneously for the first time.

“That surge has been a little bit deeper and broader than most times in the past so we have initiated some surge capacity,’’ he said.

“Previously we have mainly used the city watch-house and on occasions used Sturt, more often in the past few weeks. Last week we also initiated some surge capacity at Holden Hill.’’

He said the measure was necessary because both Yatala Labor prison and the Adelaide Remand centre were “at capacity’’.

As a result there were 37 Correctional Services prisoners being held in the city watch-house, nine at Sturt police station and 12 at Holden Hill police station.

As an immediate measure to alleviate the problem 25 additional beds were being created at Yatala by placing bunk beds in single beds cells in F Division.

An additional 12 beds were also coming online at Port Lincoln and 19 at Cadell.

Further expansions including 84 beds at Mt Gambier were also coming online next year to counter an anticipated three per cent growth in prisoner numbers.

Mr Weir said no prisoners had been released early from any SA prison because of the beds crisis.

Police Association president Mark Carroll said the issue highlighted the “need for a definitive long-term plan to house prisoners.’’

“We plan to have discussions on this issue with the new Correctional Services minister,’’ Mr Carroll said.

“Police holding cells can accommodate DCS (Correctional Services) prisoners, but only for a short term.

“We need to know what the government’s plan is for accommodating the increasing prisoner population over the longer term.

“And clearly, if a patrol is transferring a prisoner to another station’s holding cells they are unavailable to assist the public if police are required urgently.’’

Mr Carroll said the issue would be discussed at a scheduled delegates meeting tomorrow following concerns raised by members.

Senior police on Wednesday confirmed operations had been impacted by the move, but declined to elaborate in detail.

“In ordinary circumstances there is no impact on police operations, as assistance is restricted to Corrections using part of the City Watch House,’’ a spokeswoman said.

“Under the current arrangement there has been some impact on police operations — however, this is relatively minor and is something we will continue to monitor.’’

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